It’s ridiculous – as well as disheartening - which is why activists around the planet are doing their part to help reduce food waste and feed others with the discarded scraps. This is exactly what Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, is doing in Armley, Leeds. The social entrepreneur has created an empire of ‘social cafes’ through which to cook up stews, casseroles, soups and cakes with the unwanted products from supermarkets, independent grocers, and food banks.

The most unique aspect of the business model is that it has a “pay as you feel” rule. This policy encourages patrons to pay what they feel they can pay. If that amounts to nothing, then they can work for their meal.The Independent reports that in only 10 months, Smith has helped feed 10,000 people on 20 tons of unwanted food. In addition, he’s raised over 30,000 pounds (UK).

Since its success, forty-seven other similar style cafes have popped up in Manchester, Bristol, Saltaire, Los Angeles, Brazil, Warsaw, and Zurich. In the United States, a similar grocery store called The Daily Table transforms unwanted or ‘expired’ leftovers into perfectly nourishing and tasty food for customers. The founder of that endeavor is Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s.

It’s difficult for entrepreneurs inspired to repurpose food to carry out their vision, as in many areas of the world, retailers can be prosecuted if they sell food after the use-by date. The ‘best-before’ date is allowed, which is why Smith’s organization wants the law to be changed to prevent supermarkets from disposing of so much food at the fear of prosecution.

Unfortunately, groups like Smith’s are often looked down upon because they seek food others deem not optimal for consumption. With a change of perspective, however, everyone might come to understand that a good share of food thrown into dumpsters is perfectly edible. Recognizing this sooner rather than later would benefit everyone on the planet.

In Britain, food prices have risen 47% since 2003, which is quite high compared to the United States’ 30.4%, reports The Independent. Germany’s food inflation is 22.1% and France’s is 16.7%. When people struggle to afford the basic necessities in life, you can be certain there’s a fault – if not many – with ‘the system’. The Real Junk Food Project is an amazing concept and business model which will, hopefully, inspire other social cafes to sprout and blossom, as well.

A decade ago, Utah set itself an ambitious goal: end chronic homelessness. As of 2015, the state can just about declare victory: The population of chronically homeless people has dropped by 91 percent.

The chronically homeless, on the other hand, are a subset of the homeless population that is often the most vulnerable. These are people who have been living on the streets for more than a year, or four times in the past three years, and who have a "disabling condition" that might include serious mental illness, an addiction or a physical disability or illness. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that represents about 20 percent of the national homeless population.

By implementing a model known as Housing First, Utah has reduced that number from nearly 2,000 people in 2005, to fewer than 200 now.

Overwhelmed by the city's growing homeless population, which has increased by 12 percent in just two years, and facing an increase in complaints from neighborhoods about encampments, the Los Angeles City Council has declared a "shelter crisis." The measure was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday in a 14-0 vote. It creates a legal framework for the city to provide temporary housing to homeless men and women in public buildings and parking lots.

"While we're building the infrastructure, we're finding ways to address homelessness. We have a long way to go," said Councilman Jose Huizar, co-chair of the Homelessness and Poverty Committee, according to the Los Angeles Times. "It's going to be a long road ahead of us." The rise in homelessness over the last two years is forcing officials to seek housing solutions for the city's estimated 26,000 people dwelling on streets, in shelters, and living in cars, reportedLA Daily News.

The city's Municipal Code currently permits a shelter crisis to be in effect during the cold winter months - from November 1 to March 31. The vote on Tuesday extended the crisis to the spring and allows council members to designate additional buildings in their districts as temporary housing for the homeless, the LA Times reported.

Before the vote, city council members heard testimony from residents and activists from the San Fernando Valley and San Pedro who said that homeless encampments have cropped up near their homes, sometimes populated by people committing illegal acts, such as drug use and prostitution. "It's not something that we haven't been dealing with for 40 or 50 or 60 years, except that it's worse," Judith Hirschberg told the council, according to newspaper. "In my nice neighborhood, we have people who have no place to sleep, come into vacant homes and set fires. It's not a good idea."

Overwhelmed by the city's growing homeless population, which has increased by 12 percent in just two years, and facing an increase in complaints from neighborhoods about encampments, the Los Angeles City Council has declared a "shelter crisis." The measure was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday in a 14-0 vote. It creates a legal framework for the city to provide temporary housing to homeless men and women in public buildings and parking lots.

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts. The telecoms tycoon first announced the initiative on Twitter. "Greece or Italy sell me an island, I'll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country," he wrote.

More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country's four-and-a-half year conflict.

Sawiris said in a television interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about his plan. Asked by AFP whether he believed it could work, he said: "Of course it's feasible. You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees."

Sawiris said an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10 million and $100 million, but added the "main thing is investment in infrastructure". There would be "temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals. And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back," said Sawiris, whose family developed the popular El Gouna resort on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

He conceded such a plan could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island, and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations. But those who took shelter would be treated as "human beings," he said. "The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle."

Sawiris is the chief executive of Orascom TMT, which operates mobile telephone networks in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries plus Korea as well as underwater communications networks. He also owns an Egyptian television channel.

Walking is going places. Humans' most common pastime - forsaken for decades as too slow and too much effort - is now recognized as a health breakthrough, an economic catalyst and a route to happiness. Real Simple magazine (circulation: 2 million) declared "walking America's untrendiest trend" in its February 2014 cover story.

A month later Builder magazine (a construction trade journal) announced on its cover, "Walkability. Why we care...and why you should too." The reason? Simple: "Increasingly, the market is demanding places where homeowners can hoof it." The New Yorker weighed in last September quoting the new book A Philosophy of Walking, which asserts that walking "makes it possible to recover the pure sensation of being, to rediscover the simple joy of existing."

This sheer pleasure of walking is highlighted in one of the year's top music videos, "Happy" by soul singer Pharrell Williams. It's an exuberant celebration of life on foot showing all kinds of people (including Magic Johnson, Steve Carrell and Jimmy Kimmel) strutting, stepping, striding and sashaying down city streets. It's been viewed 465 million times on You Tube.

There is sure to be continuing coverage of foot power next year when the Surgeon General's office releases a Call to Action on the health and social benefits of walking and walkable communities - a step some are comparing to the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on the dangers of smoking. Already the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all adults engage in 30 minutes of physical activity such as walking five days a week based on the proven connection between moderate physical activity and lower incidences of major medical problems - not just heart disease, diabetes and obesity, as you'd expect, but also depression, dementia, anxiety, colon cancer, osteoporosis and other serious conditions.

This flurry of attention about walking is more than a flash-in-the-pan. Evidence that millions of Americans' are now rediscovering walking for transportation, fitness and fun is as solid as the sidewalk beneath our feet. Americans Are Getting Back on their Feet

"Walking is the most common form of physical activity across incomes and ages and education levels," explained Thomas Schmid of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Pro-Walk, Pro-Bike Pro-Place conference in Pittsburgh this fall. The CDC's most recent research shows the number of Americans who take a walk at least once a week rose from 56 percent in 2005 to 62 percent in 2010 - which represents almost 20 million more people on their feet.

Speaking on the same panel, Paul Herberling of the US Department of Transportation noted that 10.4 percent of all trips Americans make are on foot - and 28 percent of trips under a mile. For young people, it's 17 percent of percent of all trips. Americans walk most frequently for exercise, errands and recreation, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Last year the first-ever Walking Summit was held in Washington DC, drawing more than 400 people from 41 states and Canada representing 235 organizations ranging from the PGA Tour to the Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Department of Health. A second summit is scheduled for October 28-30, 2015 in Washington, DC. The 2013 summit, which sold out weeks in an advance, marked the birth of a new walking movement committed to: 1) encouraging everyone to walk more; and 2) boosting policies, practices and investments that make communities everywhere more walkable. It was convened by the Every Body Walk! Collaborative, a joint effort of more than 100 influential organizations across many fields to promote walking as part of the solution to problems ranging from chronic disease and health care costs to climate change and the decline of community.

More than 40 million people worldwide have been displaced from their homes and left to find shelter in strange lands. Maybe they find a tarp, or a tent, but their quality of life almost always remains dismal. To close this gap in need, Jordanian-Canadian architect and designer Abeer Seikaly designed a new kind of shelter. One that allows refugees to rebuild their lives with dignity. Seikaly, now living in Amman, Jordan is well poised to design a dwelling for refugees given that her ancestors in Jordan probably toggled between nomadic and sheltered life in the desert for centuries. "The movement of people across the earth led to the discovery of new territories as well as the creation of new communities among strangers forming towns, cities, and nations," writes Seikaly in her design brief. "Navigating this duality between exploration and settlement, movement and stillness is a fundamental essence of what it means to be human."

The outer solar-powered skin absorbs solar energy that is then converted into usable electricity, while the inner skin provides pockets for storage - particularly at the lower half of the shelters. And a water storage tank on the top of the tent allows people to take quick showers. Water rises to the storage tank via a thermosiphoning system and a drainage system ensures that the tent is not flooded.

Over a third of the global population is now overweight, and the percentages are increasing. Some neuroscientists have suggested that the rise of so-called "hyperpalatable foods" may partially explain the unprecedented rates of obesity.

Our food environment has changed dramatically over the years, most notably through the introduction of so-called "hyperpalatable" foods. These foods are deliberately engineered in such a way that they surpass the reward properties of traditional foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Food chemists achieve this by suffusing products with increased levels of fat, sugar, flavors, and food additives.

Conditioned hypereating

David A. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite and former head of the FDA, claims that the food industry has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry, thus stimulating our desire for more. On their own, these ingredients aren't particularly potent, but when combined in specific ways, they tap into the brain's reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more - even when we're full.

Linguistic experts argue in new research that people's brains do not slow down with age, but actually show the benefits of experience. Tests that had previously been taken to show cognitive decline as people age, they maintain, are actually showing the effects of having more information to process.

The linguists, from the German University of Tübingen, publish their findings in the journal Topics in Cognitive Science (Ramscar et al., 2014).

While accepting that physiological diseases of old age clearly exist, they say that the usual cognitive changes associated with age are exactly what you'd expect as the brain gathers more experience. ......................................................The authors conclude by saying: "...population aging is seen as a problem because of the fear that older adults will be a burden on society; what is more likely is that the myth of cognitive decline is leading to an absurd waste of human potential and human capital. It thus seems likely that an informed understanding of the cognitive costs and benefits of aging will benefit all society, not just its older members." (Ramscar et al., 2014).

More people are starting to look at what we've done to this planet, especially since the birth of the technological revolution. Our oceans have been suffering for a very long time, with countless oil spills and toxic waste dumped into them every single day from industrial practices and more. Despite having numerous ways to operate in a fashion that is more harmonious with the planet, we continue to choose to destroy our planet on a daily basis, and we can't afford to do that anymore. Despite how much our planet is suffering, people everyday are starting wake up and realize that we really do need to look at, question, and change the way we operate here on planet Earth. This shift in perception alone can help springboard us towards change, and creating a new experience for us and other beings who we share the planet with.Whales have been showing up dead on multiple beaches, bringing us a message with stomachs full of plastic. This has happened multiple times. In the summer of july 2013, a sperm whale was stranded on Tershelling, a Northern island in the Netherlands. The whale swallowed 56 different plastic items that totalled over 37 pounds. In april 2010, a gray whale died after stranding itself on a West Seattle beach, it was found to have over 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, and more in its system. In March of 2013 a dead sperm whale washed up on Spain's South coast which swallowed 17kg of plastic waste.The list goes on and on. Keep in mind, these are whales who choose to beach themselves or have washed up on shore, think about all the whales and other marine beings that don't. These are not uncommon events, in 1989 a stranded sperm whale in the Lavezzi Islands died of a stomach obstruction after accidentally ingesting plastic bags and 100 feet of plastic sheeting. A paper published in 1990 reports that a sperm whale in Iceland died due to a complete obstruction of the gut with plastic marine debris. In August 2008, a sperm whale washed up dead on the beach near Point Reyes, California, with 450 Pounds of fishing net, plastic bags and rope found in its stomach (see picture above) In 2008, the California Marine Mammal Stranding Database recorded another sperm whale with enormous amounts of plastic and fish netting in its stomach. I'll stop there as there are countless examples.

By now, you've probably heard of "The Great Garbage Patch," it's an area the size of Queensland, Australia where there is approximately one million tonnes of plastic spread throughout the ocean. Drag a net in any area of this part of the ocean and you will pick up toxic, discarded plastic.We've shown this video before, but here it is again just in case you missed it.

With the Fukushima disaster and the famous gulf oil spill in 2004, as well as many more we don't even hear about, I'm surprised anything at all is alive in our oceans. These events, and many more should stop everyone from their daily routines, just stop, and say no more. The world should not continue forward, people should not go to work, it's time for all of us to stop, come together and change this world. Now is our window of opportunity. These events should really serve as triggers for us to wake up and change our ways.

A mass collective desire to change these things is what has, and will put the human race on a journey to do so. It's time to educate ourselves about what is really happening on the planet, and bring awareness to the most important issues we must tackle today. This is why alternative media outlets are so important, they bring awareness and shed light on what corporate media hardly covers.

Our planet is calling on us to change our ways, and the change starts with you. At the same time, our planet is calling for a massive transformation. All of the corporations and toxic industrial practices must stop what they are doing. New, clean , green technology is available and we could easily replace all of these plastics with hemp, and much much more. We have so many solutions, yet we do not implement them.

I want to provide solutions to this problem, and it's hard to come up with them other than making changes in your own lives. There are wonderful individuals likethis one, a 19 year old boy who developed a cleanup array that could remove over seven million tons of plastic from our oceans.

Published on 6 Dec 2013 This was a difficult message for me to deliver, as I personally do not like to provide predictions of this magnitude. Those on the Ascension path will understand my intention to serve the collective by preparing all of us to be pure Wayshowers dedicated to demonstrating what Ascension is truly about: LOVE and UNITY. Sandra Walter, Ascension Guide

British archaeology experts have discovered what they believe to be the world’s oldest ‘calendar’, created by hunter-gatherer societies and dating back to around 8,000 BC. The Mesolithic monument was originally excavated in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by the National Trust for Scotland in 2004. Now analysis by a team led by the University of Birmingham, published 15 July 2013 in the journal Internet Archaeology, sheds remarkable new light on the luni-solar device, which pre-dates the first formal time-measuring devices known to Man, found in the Near East, by nearly 5,000 years.

The capacity to measure time is among the most important of human achievements and the issue of when time was ‘created’ by humankind is critical in understanding how society has developed. Until now the first formal calendars appear to have been created in Mesopotamia c. 5,000 years ago. But during this project the researchers discovered that a monument created by hunter gatherers in Aberdeenshire nearly 10,000 years ago appears to mimic the phases of the Moon in order to track lunar months over the course of a year.

The site, at Warren Field, Crathes, also aligns on the Midwinter Sunrise, providing an annual astronomic correction in order to maintain the link between the passage of time, indicated by the Moon, the asynchronous solar year and the associated seasons.

One important step towards the formal construction of time Project leader Vince Gaffney (see video), Professor of Landscape Archaeology at the University of Birmingham, comments: ‘The evidence suggests that hunter gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and sophistication to track time across the years and to correct for seasonal drift of the lunar year, and that this occurred nearly 5,000 years before the first formal calendars known in the Near East. In doing so, this illustrates one important step towards the formal construction of time and therefore history itself.’ Dr Richard Bates, of the University of St Andrews, comments: ‘St Andrews has an established reputation for remote sensing studies of early prehistoric sites in Scotland but the site at Warren Field is unique. It provides exciting new evidence for the earlier Mesolithic in Scotland demonstrating the sophistication of these early societies and revealing that 10,000 years ago hunter gatherers constructed monuments that helped them track time. This is the earliest example of such a structure and there is no known comparable site in Britain or Europe for several thousands of years after the monument at Warren Field was constructed.’Unusual crop marks The Warren Field site was first discovered as unusual crop marks spotted from the air by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). Dave Cowley, Aerial Survey projects manager at RCAHMS, said: ‘We have been taking photographs of the Scottish landscape for nearly 40 years, recording thousands of archaeological sites that would never have been detected from the ground. Warren Field stands out as something special, however. It is remarkable to think that our aerial survey may have helped to find the place where time itself was 'invented'.’ Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester, who advised the team, points out that ‘the site did not mark particular moonrises, as the changing patterns of moonrise are far too complex – the argument is that it represents a combination of several different cycles which can be used to track time symbolically and practically. There are certainly hunter-gatherer societies who use the phase cycles of the moon to help synchronise different seasonal activities but it is remarkable that this could have been monumentalised at such an early period.’ From 2004-6 the National Trust for Scotland excavated the Warren Field pit alignment, which lies on its Crathes Castle Estate, in collaboration with Murray Archaeological Services. The Trust’s Archaeologist for Eastern Scotland, Dr Shannon Fraser, said: ‘This is a remarkable monument, which is so far unique in Britain. Our excavations revealed a fascinating glimpse into the cultural lives of people some 10,000 years ago – and now this latest discovery further enriches our understanding of their relationship with time and the heavens’. Dr Christopher Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, adds: ‘For pre-historic hunter-gatherer communities, knowing what food resources were available at different times of the year was crucial to survival. These communities relied on hunting migrating animals and the consequences of missing these events were potential starvation. They needed to carefully note the seasons to be prepared for when that food resource passed through, so from this perspective, our interpretation of this site as a seasonal calendar makes sense.’ Contacts and sources: University of Birminghamhttp://beforeitsnews.com/watercooler-topics/2013/07/the-beginning-of-time-worlds-oldest-calendar-found-10000-years-old-2433532.html